Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester

Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short stories—two of them previously unpublished—that have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time. Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Make a deal with the Devil—but not without calling your agent. Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers. CONTENTS: Disappearing Act Oddy and Id Star Light, Star Bright (1953) 5,271,009 (1954) Fondly Fahrenheit (1954) Hobson's Choice (1952) Of Time and Third Avenue (1952) Time is the Traitor (1953) The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (1958) The Pi Man (1959) They Don't Make Life Like They Used To (1963) Will You Wait? (1959) The Flowered Thundermug (1964) Adam and No Eve (1941) And 3 1/2 to Go Galatea Galante (1979) The Devil Without Glasses